It's often impossible to find info on which modern or semi-modern displays have good compatibility with oldschool VGA hacks/tweakmodes. The purpose of this thread/database is to test displays and share the results, in order to create a useful resource for people looking for this info.
Google searchbait: mode-x mode-y mode-q Michael Abrash VGA LCD CRT DOS 70Hz textmode fakemode 😉
Instructions: Download the testing suite <-- I am looking for more permanent hosting for this
Burn it or copy its contents to a real DOS/VGA machine
Check out the readme and example/template.txt
Test your monitor
Share the results 😀
Extra credit: take a couple pics and post them too
This is not a definitive guide to every possible VGA mode. Recommendations of other stuff to try are welcome! (And feel free to add your own results even if the app/game/demo/whatever isn't specifically listed here.) For example it was suggested to include Sea of Robot Love by Orange as it sets a 50Hz mode on standard VGA. I will periodically update the testing suite if needed.
Note: please do not run this from DOSBox and submit your results! DOSBox includes its own scaler and doesn't run in the native VGA mode so you're not actually testing your monitor that way. This is probably obvious but I figured I'd better write it down anyway. DOSBox does offer a convenient way to compare what these programs are supposed to look like (except Copper) though.
twitch.tv/oldskooljay - playing the obscure, forgotten & weird - most Tuesdays & Thursdays @ 6:30 PM PDT. Bonus streams elsewhen!
1 Application P F CP Notes 2,-----------------------------------------------------------------------------. 3| Ambience | | X | | | 4| Luminati | | X | | | 5| Timeless (56Hz) | X | | | | 6| Timeless (60Hz) | X | | | | 7| Dowhackado | X | | | | 8| Kukoo2 | | | X | Has some issues w/rapid color switching. | 9| Copper | | X | | Won't show 70 Hz modes. | 10| Sunflower | | X | | Only 480p screens work. | 11| Yo | | X | | | 12| Impulse Tracker | | X | | | 13| CubicPlayer 132x43 | | X | | | 14| Tweak 256x256 | | | X | Crops the top slightly | 15| Tweak 360x480 | X | | | | 16| Tweak 376x564 | | X | | | 17| PAL-on-VGA | | X | | | 18| NTSC-on-VGA | | X | | Loading 256NTSC.256 from Tweak16b works. | 19`-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'
Other notes: does not seem to support 70 Hz modes AT ALL, including mode 13h and 720x400 text mode. Takes a long time (2s) to change resolutions. 240/480 (60Hz) modes are fine; textmode possible if 80x30 mode is set.
Standard 400p/70Hz text mode doesn't work (all 70Hz modes give same result)
80x30 480p/60Hz text mode tweak is possible. Monitor auto-crops for overscan which affects some VGA screens.
Ambience showing standard stretch
Ambience with 4:3 pillarboxing enabled
Note: you don't have to take as many photos as I'm doing here, I'm just showing some examples 😉
Last edited by xjas on 2015-09-18, 05:55. Edited 1 time in total.
twitch.tv/oldskooljay - playing the obscure, forgotten & weird - most Tuesdays & Thursdays @ 6:30 PM PDT. Bonus streams elsewhen!
1 Application P F CP Notes 2,-----------------------------------------------------------------------------. 3| Ambience | | | X | Worked after down arrow (decrease refresh | 4| Luminati | | | X | rate) pressed a few times. Seems to go out | 5| of range around 87 Hz. | 6| Timeless (56Hz) | X | | | | 7| Timeless (60Hz) | X | | | | 8| Dowhackado | X | | | | 9| Kukoo2 | X | | | | 10| Copper | X | | | THE WOBBLE WORKS. | 11| Sunflower | X | | | | 12| Yo | X | | | | 13| Impulse Tracker | X | | | | 14| CubicPlayer 132x43 | X | | | | 15| Tweak 256x256 | X | | | Every single mode in 'Tweak16' works. Even | 16| Tweak 360x480 | X | | | the notoriously difficult ones. | 17| Tweak 376x564 | X | | | | 18| PAL-on-VGA | X | | | Somewhat squashed, aspect ratio wrong. | 19| NTSC-on-VGA | X | | | "" "" | 20`-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'
Other notes:
EUC (not AOC) make monitors intended for the CCTV / security industry, so I imagine they're not overly common. I picked this one up from a local classified ad for all of ten bucks. I don't think I'd be exaggerating if I said this is the best LCD monitor for DOS applications I've ever seen. The slightly-dodgy-translated blurb from the official website says it all:
" Enhanced Video Signal (EVS) Input monitors provide the highest compatibility with CCTV equipment and enhanced video clarity. Unlike many flat panel monitors designed for the PC industry, EVS enabled monitors will not experience dropped signals as a result of video signal hunting. Dropped signals and poor composite video quality have made most flat panel monitors (designed for the PC industry) difficult and undesirable to use with multiplexers and digital recorders. [...] "
This thing is very quick when changing resolution / display modes. Naturally, while I did all the testing on VGA, composite & s-video modes work great as well. It's even useable with LCD shutter glasses (DIY SimulEyes clone) although with significant ghosting and your head must be held at 45 degree angle so that the polarization doesn't black out the screen.
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^^ This is pretty much the only photo I need bother posting. Everything that needs to be said is said right here. Nonetheless, here are some more pics...
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The beast in question.
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Beautiful fakemode presentation in Sunflower.
Every single mode included in Tweak16b worked fine. ALL OF THEM.
The attachment agn_ntsc_sky.jpg is no longer available
NTSC-on-VGA
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Jill in PAL-on-VGA. Aspect ratio in these modes was a bit wrong. You can probably adjust this out manually.
[Edit: still zapping ph*tob^cket hotlinks in 2020... had to remove a couple pics to fit under 5 but nothing important.]
Last edited by xjas on 2020-11-25, 08:00. Edited 2 times in total.
twitch.tv/oldskooljay - playing the obscure, forgotten & weird - most Tuesdays & Thursdays @ 6:30 PM PDT. Bonus streams elsewhen!
For example it was suggested to include Sea of Robot Love by Orange as it sets a 50Hz mode on standard VGA
Or xtal \ Complex, it also uses the same 50hz tweaked mode as in Orange intro.
by the way, I will test some monitors and post the results there, so thanks for test suite (although I already have some tweakmode test stuff, including my own 😉)
I'll definitely be trying out some monitors when I get home. I have been wanting to phase out my CRTs for various reasons, so this is quite helpful. Thanks a bunch.
I recently found a place that sells tested "old" LCD monitors for 20kr = 2 euro each 😀. They have alot of brands in all sizes up to 20" but only 4:3 models with D-sub only input. I have a feeling I will hoard quite a few different LCDs if the 4 I already bought turns out to be in OKish shape, they are still at work but I will probably take them home later this week.
The ones I bought so far are 19" (IBM + 2x Samsung) 1280*1024 and a 20" (HP), probably 1280*1024 aswell but Im tempted to get a few 15" 1024*768 LCDs as I only have two of those in working condition.
Sometime™ I will try them out to see what kind of tweakmodes they support.
New PC: i9 12900K @5GHz all cores @1.2v. MSI PRO Z690-A. 32GB DDR4 3600 CL14. 3070Ti.
Old PC: Dual Xeon X5690@4.6GHz, EVGA SR-2, 48GB DDR3R@2000MHz, Intel X25-M. GTX 980ti.
Older PC: K6-3+ 400@600MHz, PC-Chips M577, 256MB SDRAM, AWE64, Voodoo Banshee.
I recently found a place that sells tested "old" LCD monitors for 20kr = 2 euro each 😀. They have alot of brands in all sizes up to 20" but only 4:3 models with D-sub only input.
Become their best friend, and convince them to include xjas's testing suite in their testing, tested only with a kick-ass Gona-approved graphics card, and making the results public? 😁
"I see a little silhouette-o of a man, Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you
do the Fandango!" - Queen
I recently found a place that sells tested "old" LCD monitors for 20kr = 2 euro each 😀. They have alot of brands in all sizes up to 20" but only 4:3 models with D-sub only input.
Become their best friend, and convince them to include xjas's testing suite in their testing, tested only with a kick-ass Gona-approved graphics card, and making the results public? 😁
Its one of those places where people who cant find a job are sent to so they can learn to ... I dont know... spend government money? I doubt their abilities go far beyond "shows picture or does not show picture", at least I get to buy cheap donated LCDs. Their "day centre" is located only a few hundred meters from my workplace 😀.
[short rant]
In Sweden we think we can "fix" everyone so they will become productive citizens when it would be much cheaper to just give them some welfare money.
[/short rant]
New PC: i9 12900K @5GHz all cores @1.2v. MSI PRO Z690-A. 32GB DDR4 3600 CL14. 3070Ti.
Old PC: Dual Xeon X5690@4.6GHz, EVGA SR-2, 48GB DDR3R@2000MHz, Intel X25-M. GTX 980ti.
Older PC: K6-3+ 400@600MHz, PC-Chips M577, 256MB SDRAM, AWE64, Voodoo Banshee.
[off]
Beware the whole "just give them welfare money" situation... You risk creating a mass of people that rely on that far too much instead of making any effort to find a job (or a better one), becoming somewhat permanently a "dead weight" to the country's economy. I agree, though, that you shouldn't just give people pointless jobs. But that is a very complicated matter.
[/off]
Is a Voodoo3 a compatible enough card to run these tests? My S3-powered systems are stored, and I don't want to drag one of them out for testing unless I absolutely need to.
Use any video card you have! Even if it doesn't run Copper or Do perfectly, most of these testing programs are generally standard VGA. Chances are some of them will work. It's usually pretty easy to identify whether a glitch is caused by the monitor or the video card itself.
Also please keep politics & off topic discussion out of this thread, it's supposed to be a database!
twitch.tv/oldskooljay - playing the obscure, forgotten & weird - most Tuesdays & Thursdays @ 6:30 PM PDT. Bonus streams elsewhen!
Gateway 2000 Case and 200-Watt PSU
Intel SE440BX-2 Motherboard
Intel Pentium III 450 CPU
Micron 384MB SDRAM (3x128)
Compaq Voodoo3 3500 TV Graphics Card
Turtle Beach Santa Cruz Sound Card
Western Digital 7200-RPM, 8MB-Cache, 160GB Hard Drive
Windows 98 SE
Why is that HP monitor so expensive? Might as well get a cheapo LCD plus a XRGB-mini Framemeister for that! Kinda wish I had one right now to see how it handles VGA tweak modes or if it can even handle SVGA signals from its RGB port.
Anyway, both of those monitors explicitly state a 75Hz input limit so Tran's demos won't work. My HP LP2475w has so-so compatibility, it claims 85Hz max and Tran's demos do display, but with seizure inducing flashing since the ADC seems to be doing a hard cut down to 60fps.
Gateway 2000 Case and 200-Watt PSU
Intel SE440BX-2 Motherboard
Intel Pentium III 450 CPU
Micron 384MB SDRAM (3x128)
Compaq Voodoo3 3500 TV Graphics Card
Turtle Beach Santa Cruz Sound Card
Western Digital 7200-RPM, 8MB-Cache, 160GB Hard Drive
Windows 98 SE
^^ Looks like the LT model has BNC in & through ports (so you can daisy-chain them together) which mine doesn't have. Also the 17" is only 1024x768. Obviously I highly recommend it if you can score one for a decent price. Mine is hooked up to my MSX & to my G5 tower as a second head right now. It's brilliant.
twitch.tv/oldskooljay - playing the obscure, forgotten & weird - most Tuesdays & Thursdays @ 6:30 PM PDT. Bonus streams elsewhen!
Anyway, both of those monitors explicitly state a 75Hz input limit so Tran's demos won't work. My HP LP2475w has so-so compatibility, it claims 85Hz max and Tran's demos do display, but with seizure inducing flashing since the ADC seems to be doing a hard cut down to 60fps.
The Viewsonic VG150 datasheet says max Fv=75Hz but mine works up to at least 87Hz. Sometimes they are needlessly conservative.
twitch.tv/oldskooljay - playing the obscure, forgotten & weird - most Tuesdays & Thursdays @ 6:30 PM PDT. Bonus streams elsewhen!
Here are the results of my Samsung 2443 from the other thread:
1Monitor: Samsung SyncMaster 2443 2Native res: 1920x1200 3Scaling: Interpolated 4Aspect rto: 16:10 (aspect ratio can be switched between "Auto" and "Wide") 5Machine: 486DX4, K6-3+, Athlon 6 7Video card: Tseng ET4000, S3 Virge DX/GX, Voodoo 5, GeForce 4 Ti4600 8UniVBE: none 9Tested by: 5u3 10 11OVERALL COMPATIBILITY RATING: 12 11.5/14 - Good 13 14 Application P F CP Notes 15,-----------------------------------------------------------------------------. 16| Ambience | | X | | Blank screen, message: "Not Optimum Mode" | 17| Luminati | | X | | Blank screen, message: "Not Optimum Mode" | 18| Timeless (56Hz) | X | | | | 19| Timeless (60Hz) | X | | | | 20| Dowhackado | X | | | | 21| Kukoo2 | X | | | | 22| Copper | | | X | No wobble effect, everything else fine | 23| Sunflower | X | | | | 24| Yo | X | | | | 25| Impulse Tracker | X | | | Ugly scaling | 26| CubicPlayer 132x43 | X | | | Ugly scaling | 27| Tweak 256x256 | X | | | | 28| Tweak 360x480 | X | | | | 29| Tweak 376x564 | X | | | | 30| PAL-on-VGA | | X | | | 31| NTSC-on-VGA | | X | | | 32|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------| 33| Other notes: | 34| | 35| | 36`-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'
Many 1920x1200 monitors from Samsung perform similar to this one. They usually have quick controls for auto adjustment, input selector and aspect ratio, so they are nice if you want to use the same monitor for both your retro and modern systems.
I found one new, open boxed for $125 including shipping. It is on its way.
BTW there is one more available
Gateway 2000 Case and 200-Watt PSU
Intel SE440BX-2 Motherboard
Intel Pentium III 450 CPU
Micron 384MB SDRAM (3x128)
Compaq Voodoo3 3500 TV Graphics Card
Turtle Beach Santa Cruz Sound Card
Western Digital 7200-RPM, 8MB-Cache, 160GB Hard Drive
Windows 98 SE
Okay, now I will post my results for LG Flatron L1510S:
1Monitor: LG Flatron L1510S (manufactured April 2003) 2Native res: 1024x768 3Scaling: interpolated 4Aspect rto: 4:3, letterboxing not supported 5Machine: 1) P200MMX\FIC VA-502(VIA VPX)\128 MB SDRAM\AWE64 and 6 2) P200MMX\Zida 5STX(i430TX)\128 MB SDRAM\Vibra16 7Video card: 1) Matrox Millennium 2 MB 8 2) S3 Trio64V2/DX 1MB 9UniVBE: no 10Tested by: wbcbz7 11 12OVERALL COMPATIBILITY RATING: 13 8.5 / 14 - pretty bad 14 15 Application P F CP Notes 16,-----------------------------------------------------------------------------. 17| Ambience | | X | | out of sync even on lowest vertical rate | 18| Luminati | | X | | out of sync even on lowest vertical rate | 19| Timeless (56Hz) | X | | | | 20| Timeless (60Hz) | X | | | | 21| Dowhackado | | X | | tries to sync but blank screen | 22| Kukoo2 | | X | | tries to sync but blank screen | 23| Copper | | | X | no wobble and some glitches with matrox | 24| | | | | (I'm sure that it's the card issues) | 25| Sunflower | X | | | some vertical banding but looks nice | 26| Yo | X | | | | 27| Impulse Tracker | X | | | | 28| CubicPlayer 132x43 | X | | | not perfect scaling | 29| Tweak 256x256 | X | | | bottom 16 lines cropped | 30| Tweak 360x480 | X | | | | 31| Tweak 376x564 | | X | | out of sync | 32| PAL-on-VGA | | X | | | 33| NTSC-on-VGA | | X | | | 34|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------| 35| Other notes: | 36| | 37| NAID'95 Report | X | | | some little horizontal color banding | 38| Xtal | | X | | out of sync | 39| | 40`-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'
and some photos (some of them are clickable!):
ugly scaling in Cubic Player
Timeless in 56Hz mode
nice fakemode rendering in Sunflower (click on latter image and notice the vertical banding)
and a bonus: NAID'95 Report / Hornet, which uses 320x600 56Hz fakemode for displaying truecolor images (generally it should work as regular 800x600 56Hz, but I'm not absolutely sure)
